


A Leaf at Thanksgiving

by Badgermole



Series: Colors [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Autism, Colors, Gen, Leaf - Freeform, Thanksgiving, dad!logan, kid!virgil, nonverbal, park
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-22 18:24:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badgermole/pseuds/Badgermole
Summary: Virgil and Logan walk over to Roman and Thomas' house for an early Thanksgiving together.*Bonus Chapter!*(Just read it, Nike Swoosh)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for the super kind comments on A Day at the Park. So I started a little AU series, Colors for it!

__

Logan smiled and shook his head as he watched Virgil run ahead to pick up yet another red leaf. Fall was Virgil’s favorite time of the year. All the beautiful colors and leaves that flew around in the wind. It was perhaps the only time that Virgil was relatively okay with the color yellow. Currently it was the best time for leaves in Logan’s opinion. The trees still looked relatively full, but there was also a fair amount on the ground already. None of the leaves had turned the dead brown yet.

Virgil picked up the new red leaf and waddle ran back to his father. Virgil held up the leaf far above his head while keeping his eyes on the shiny black dress shoes Logan nearly always wore.

“I very nice specimen indeed.” Logan said. “Is this the one you want to give to Red?”

Virgil’s eyes locked onto the left side of Logan’s chest. He was wearing a plain dress shirt which was unfortunately missing a breast pocket. Virgil had nearly had a meltdown at the loss of the constant. Somehow Logan had calmed his son down and even though his son’s eyes were still a bit puffy, everything had turned out okay.

Logan took the new leaf and handed Virgil back the last leaf Virgil had said was perfect for his best friend. Virgil let out a small happy hum and threw the old red leaf up over his head. He watched as it floated down in front of him.

“Come now Purple, we do not want to keep Red and Green waiting now do we?” Logan waited for his son to start moving again before following.

Another perfect red leaf seemed to have caught the small boy’s attention as he rushed forward again.

 

Roman and Virgil had met under some less than ideal circumstances. Logan and Virgil had been at the park. Logan reading a book and Virgil entertaining himself by people watching or tracing the bumps of the park table. Logan informed Virgil that he was going to the bathroom and inquired if Virgil needed to go as well. Virgil didn’t respond, entranced with the ant that was making its way up and down the mesh of the table.

“I will be right back.” Logan turned and briskly walked toward the restrooms. He trusted the Virgil would not go anywhere, but both Logan and Virgil were all too aware that there were bad people in this world.

Logan could not have been gone more than five minutes.

Virgil had curled himself up on his side under the table in the dirt. He was rocking quickly and whimpering. Logan quickened his pace, sprinting back toward his son. There was a boy, a few years older than Virgil, dressed in a red and white prince outfit complete with a plastic crown on his head and a foam sword in his hand.

“Die you foul beast!” The new boy said slashing his sword in the air at some imaginary foe. “Don’t worry brave knight, I will protect you!”

Although the boy’s voice was full of excitement and passion, he still managed to keep his volume relatively low. Logan knelt down beside the table as the older boy finally spotted him.

“Halt peasant!” The boy raced over, squishing himself between the table and Logan. “I cannot let you near my fallen knight. The evil dragon witch has cursed him! Let the prince handle this.”

Logan blinked at the boy. Even at such as young age, this boy was trying to help Virgil in his own way.

“Ah Prince. I am a wizard from a faraway land. I have seen this curse before, let me help your fallen knight.” Logan said calmly glancing around to his son. While his rocking was still fast, his whimpering at stopped at the sound of Logan’s voice.

The foam sword dropped from the spot in front of Logan’s chest as the boy tilted his head with a small smile. “How can I be sure you aren’t a spy for the dragon witch?”

“Your knight has been protecting me through our travels between the many kingdoms of the realm.” Logan slowly moved and pulled out his phone and opened the pictures app. “Take a look at our journeys together.”

Logan quickly flipped through some pictures he had taken with Virgil. He stopped on the last picture he had with Virgil. It was back on the day he was adopted, barely two years ago. Virgil was so small, but he was clinging to Logan’s breast pocket as though his life depended on it. His son had a hard first year of his life, but Logan was never going to let that happen to his son again.

The prince bowed and shuffled out of the way. “You may pass wizard. I shall handle the dragon witch while you help the knight.”

The boy shuffled away a bit stiffly. His fighting wasn’t as passionate as it had been as he kept a careful eye on the strange wizard crouched near the cursed knight.

 

Someone had touched Virgil which sent Virgil into a meltdown. According to Thomas later, the woman was trying to find out where Virgil’s parents were. Virgil had of course ignored the questions and thus led to the contact. Thomas seen the incident go down and had asked his son, Roman, to stay with the poor boy as Thomas raced around trying to find a child-less parent.

Roman had decided that he and Virgil would be friends and the later would be a knight in his own court. It was only their first proper play-date at the park that Virgil had announced that Roman was Red now. The 3 year old quietly followed the 5 year old around for the day, surprising Logan.

 

The pair finally reached Roman and Thomas’ house with the final perfect red leaf. Logan knocked on the door and handed the leaf back to Virgil. Thomas opened the door, letting the pair in. Roman immediately bounced down that stairs and landed down with a thud in front of Virgil.

“Hey Purple!” Roman smiled at the strange boy. He didn’t understand Virgil’s odd quirks or what autism was, but he treated Virgil like any other person.

Virgil looked at the left side of Roman’s chest and held up the perfect red leaf for his friend. Roman smiled and placed it carefully in his dress shirt’s pocket. Virgil’s arm disappeared and Roman immediately grabbed the empty cuff, dragging the younger boy into the next room.

“They are quite a pair.” Logan said with a big smile.


	2. Bonus Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How could a story about leaves not have the boys play in them?

Roman and Virgil waited patiently, at least Virgil was, on the back porch as the two adults raked the leaves into a large pile. Roman bounced from foot to foot, vibrating with energy. He had left the prefect red leaf on the kitchen counter. Virgil had started to get upset, but Roman explained that he didn’t want to lose the leaf outside with all the others.

The make-shift family had eaten a light Thanksgiving meal. Roman had somehow eaten most of the turkey, yet still maintained his enormous amount of energy. Virgil never ate much, and even less around others, but he had wanted a few different items of food placed on his plate. Thanksgiving meals always had a big spread of colors that Virgil could look at. Orange sweet potatoes with white marshmallows, purple cranberry sauce, beige turkey, brown gravy, green beans.

After Logan made the boys wait 30 minutes while their food digested, “They’re playing in leaves Blue, they’re not going swimming” Thomas had smirked, the pair of young boys were finally going to get to play.

“They’re almost done Purp.” Roman smiled and clapped happily a few times. Virgil let out small hum. He had taken to staring at the sky to watch all the leaves that were floating around in the air whenever the wind blew. Up, and green, and down, and red, and loop de loop, and orange, and sideways, and yellow. It was much more interesting than watching the adults.

Virgil liked Red. He wasn’t weird. He didn’t make Virgil feel weird. Red was nice. They were going to play in the colors together. Maybe he would find another leaf for his friend. Virgil hummed again.

Roman didn’t hear Virgil, too absorbed with waiting for his father telling him and Virgil that they could play now. Logan had stopped raking and was staring at his pile for Virgil. Roman figured he was doing some sort of math. As far as Roman could tell, Mr. Logan’s head was only full of numbers and Virgil. Logan nodded to himself, the numbers must have been right.

“Hurry up Dad!” Roman nearly shrieked and stomped his foot. Virgil pulled his head down and his shoulders up at the sudden outburst.

“Sorry, I’m just excited.” Roman apologized and watched Virgil relax again. Roman was upset that Virgil kept his head down staring at the wood of the deck beneath their feet. He hadn’t meant to make Virgil feel bad. “We’re gonna play in the colors soon.”

Virgil hummed and started to sway a bit on his feet. Sometimes Virgil rocked back and forth. Sometimes it was bad, Virgil was very upset, but sometimes it was good, Virgil was very happy. Roman looked over at Mr. Logan.

“Mr. Blue?” Roman called but kept his voice more subdued than before.

Logan turned to look back at Roman. Roman gave a not so subtle point toward his friend. Logan watched Virgil as he shifted his weight from his toes to his heels and back again, a slow rock.

“Purple’s just excited to play.” Logan clarified. He watched as tension disappeared from the older boy. Roman smiled at his friend.

“I’m excited too.” Roman kept the smile on his face even though Virgil couldn’t see it.

 

Thomas finally finished the large pile for Roman. The fathers looked at each other and nodded. They had made the boys suffer long enough.

“Okay, now boys. Please play safe. No stick sword fighting each other. You let us know if you want us to make piles again.” Thomas spoke, mostly to Roman. “Don’t do anything dumb.”

Roman felt his face start to heat up a bit. He rapidly nodded, Logan was worried the boy would give himself whiplash.

“Have fun.” Thomas nodded to the boys. Logan and Thomas plopped down on the two chairs on the deck and watched as Roman immediately dove into the leaves. Virgil was a bit more hesitant, but after seeing Roman emerge from the leaves laughing hysterically, Virgil moved a bit more quickly and hopped into his own smaller pile.

Virgil was immediately surrounded by color. So much color. Virgil started letting out near continuous hums. He opened and closed his hands as though he was clapping one-handed. The leaves crunched in his hands bursting into more colorful bits. He was vaguely aware that Red was talking to him, but he found himself entranced by all of the color around him. He was happy.

 

Something shattered Virgil’s colorful world. Suddenly there was too many colors. The leaves prickled and poked his skin through his clothes. His happy hums turned quick and frantic. His hands flapped quicker and harder against his palms. Yellow, there was yellow.

Someone reached through the leaves and pulled Virgil up against their chest. Virgil let out a whine and squeezed his eyes shut. No more leaves, good. Being held, no good. Virgil squirmed but couldn’t get out of the hold.

Finally Virgil was put down into a chair. He started rocking while his hands still flapped. He was left alone to calm himself down.

When he finally blinked open his eyes, Red was sitting criss-cross on the floor in front of him. Virgil quickly shut his eyes again, not expecting so have someone’s face in his line of sight.

“I got you a purple leaf.” Roman held out the purplish leaf for Virgil until Virgil opened his eyes. Virgil slowly did but kept his eyes down at the porch.  Virgil slowly took the leaf from Roman’s hand and ran his fingers over the veins. He hummed and bobbed his head.

Roman smiled as he watched his friend. “Maybe we’ll play again in the leaves some other time.”

Virgil hummed and flicked his eyes to the left side of Roman’s chest.

“Feeling better Purp?” Logan’s voice turned Virgil’s head. Virgil lifted up the leaf toward his father. Logan hummed and nodded his head at the two calm boys. “Very pretty.”

“I found it for him!” Roman smiled up at the finally relaxing adult.

“You are a very good friend Red. Thank you for making sure your friend was okay.” Logan let a bit of a forced smile onto his face. Roman didn’t seem to notice, too focused on the praise he was getting.

Roman and Virgil stayed on the porch so the pair could watch the sunset. A smile took over Virgil’s tired face as the sky changed colors. Blues and purples and oranges and reds and even yellows. The fleeting sunlight enhancing the colors of the leaves the boys had been playing in only a bit before. It was nice.

Virgil had a good Thanksgiving.


End file.
